Different
by fan-nerd
Summary: Yosuke, music, family, Yu, and everything in between.


A/N: _Yosuke is a gift, and who the heck knows how fast I typed this up. Enjoy!_

_**Different**_

naruyuIT2011: Are you really that concerned of what people think of you?

mewSICKstar12: y. i kno its stoopid but cnt help it

naruyuIT2011: But me, our friends…we wouldn't judge you. Still?

mewSICKstar12: (typing…)

mewSICKstar12: im more worried *esp* now tht i hv friends.

/ /

Yosuke comes home with big, wet eyes and pretends he wasn't crying two seconds before he got to the door of the apartment. His mother lets him smile his way through a couple excuses, and laugh off the little hunch he has in his back now, at least for a few hours. Later that evening, she questions her boy about his activities in the afternoon. The four year old tries to smile and fails, his grin wobbling into a wide-mouth cry and she bundles him in her arms as he sobs on and on about girls in the neighborhood bullying him.

This isn't the first time Mrs. Hanamura realizes that her son is tragically emotional, but he says something that gets the gears clicking in her mind that afternoon.

"The girls said…I hung out with Sato too much. Kyoko-chan…tried to bite me because I held hands with him on the way to the park," Yosuke wails, sniffling between every two or three words. "But I didn't want him to get lost…and then _Sato_ said I was gross! I'm not gross, Mom, I'm not!"

"You aren't, Yosuke," She assured him in a very stern manner, thinking the very opposite. "That was very mean of those girls, and I'll have to speak to their mothers about this behavior."

Instead of making her boy relaxed, like she expects, this makes his dark brown eyes go wide with panic and the tears stop rolling down his cheeks almost on command. "No, no! You can't, then everyone will _really_ think I'm weird and gross, getting my mom to tell on them."

The woman frowns. "Now, Yosuke, you know that isn't right."

"I know, I know," He sobs lowly against her chest, and her chest hurts, seeing him in pain like this. "But they're my friends. I can't."

Mrs. Hanamura only agrees on one condition: her son must tell her if this sort of thing ever happens again, and there will be no arguing with her about speaking to their parents. Yosuke agrees all too readily.

In the days following, Yosuke's smile gets brighter, so bright that even _she_, usually so good at reading her transparent son, can't tell if he's just trying to hide his tears or not.

/ /

naruyuIT2011: I see you wearing your headphones a lot, even in the TV world.

naruyuIT2011: What do you listen to?

mewSICKstar12: (typing…)

mewSICKstar12: lil bit o evthg

mewSICKstar12: hlps me stay calm

naruyuIT2011: So, jazz? Classical?

mewSICKstar12: lol, id b sleep. rock, alt, elec, etc. ill listen 2 anythg once

naruyuIT2011: What's your favorite CD?

/ /

The boy finds solace in music at the tender age of eight. His father, not distant but difficult to converse with at such an age, gives him a CD. There's no occasion – he just saw it, and thought that Yosuke should have one. Hanamura senior doesn't think it's the best thing he's ever heard, but a fellow manager at Junes has a son Yosuke's age, and he says his son is obsessed with the thing. He gives Yosuke a new set of headphones, apologizes for not yet being able to get him an mp3 player, and slinks into the living room to relax.

Without hesitation, his son puts the CD in the family computer in the same room and sits wide-eyed at the desktop. For what feels like the first time in a long time, Yosuke sits in complete silence for forty minutes, and then he breaks down in tears.

His father isn't sure what to do as Yosuke comes over and shakes his shoulders, desperate to know more about the group. He sheepishly pulls him off and says he can look it up or ask his co-worker, and Yosuke starts whooping with joy, running out of the room.

He's not sure whether he should tell his wife about this right away, or let her find out about their son's strange behavior on her own. He opts for the second choice because it doesn't seem harmful.

For the rest of the evening, Yosuke is uncharacteristically absorbed in something, sitting at the computer with his eyes closed. The only way his father knows he's still awake is that his little fingers are tapping out against the keys, and his feet are restless.

The man doesn't know what it means, that his boy pulls further away from talking to his parents by taking salvation in music, but he _does_ find out the music on that CD is rather controversial, by words of his co-worker.

"Apparently," the man murmurs absently, "the group is famous for approaching things like exclusion among social groups because of differences in attraction, and other modern issues. I don't really understand it, but the kids love it."

Mr. Hanamura _does_ decide to tell his wife about _that._

/ /

naruyuIT2011: You always back up when I touch your shoulder or reach out to get things out of your hair. Does it make you uncomfortable?

mewSICKstar12: no…sry, not usd to ppl b-ng close 2 me

naruyuIT2011: If you don't like that, I can stop.

mewSICKstar12: its ok dude. rnt u afraid?

naruyuIT2011: Afraid? Of what?

mewSICKstar12: (typing…)

mewSICKstar12: (typing…)

mewSICKstar12: nvm

/ /

"No," thirteen-year old Yosuke whines. "That's stupid. I can't do that, Mom."

Mrs. Hanamura scowls. "You liked this when you were younger."

"That was _then_," he groans. "What will my friends think? They'll think that I can't do anything other than listen to my mom and act like a homo."

Ignoring the fact that her boy hasn't had _friends_ over to their house in years, let alone talked about any of them at any length, she bites her lip and steels herself. "Where did you learn that word?"

Yosuke clenches up. He's nervous – she can still read that much, at least. "At school, duh. Watanabe said that acting like a homo is exactly the kind of thing that would make any guy disliked among guys. Being…different like that, I mean." The boy shuffles a little. She'd met Watanabe maybe once, at field day sort of event for the junior high. Yosuke had been awkward around him and the others he was near, even though he'd cleared first place for his team in the track race by a landslide.

"Do you believe that?" The woman stopped for a moment, genuinely disappointed in her son's over-enthusiasm to blend in with the crowd. "That being different is bad?"

Yosuke doesn't answer her; he shuffles in place and hangs his head, pointedly ignoring her gaze. She doesn't say anything else.

/ /

mewSICKstar12: u still thr?

mewSICKstar12: narukami?

mewSICKstar12: ?

mewSICKstar12: just wnted 2 say hi

mewSICKstar12: if ur off, nite

mewSICKstar12: sry for bothring u

**mewSICKstar12** has signed off

**1 new message from Narukami**: Sorry, I fell asleep. You're never a bother. Feel free to call me next time.

/ /

When they move to Inaba, Yosuke retreats to his music and fiddles with his phone. He grows gloomy and quiet again for a time, and his parents sigh. He has no passion for school, no friends, and nothing other than a job at Junes in a town whose inhabitants nearly hate him.

It's hardly surprisingly that Yosuke's humor becomes even more self-depreciating and that his laughter grows quiet and hollow.

Yosuke's father doesn't know how to react, so he simply treats his son like an employee, hoping that keeping him working will keep him diligent. At the very least, Yosuke enjoys joking around with his teenaged co-workers, even if doing so was just a façade. His mother yells at him to tidy up his room, and reprimands him for stashing porn magazines. In the evenings when it's just the two of them in their bedroom, they sigh and whisper about their son, constantly worried about his future.

They assure themselves that Yosuke's just a typical teenager, and he just needs time to figure himself out. It works fairly well until a new transfer student comes, half a year after they move, and Saki Konishi dies.

Then, everything changes.

/ /

_Hanamura Yosuke calling…_

"Hello?"

"Uh, is this Narukami?"

"Hanamura, you have my number."

"Oy, stop smiling, you jerk. I can hear it through the phone."

"You wound me."

"Yeah, yeah. So, what're you up to? Probably studying, right?"

"A little bit. When we go inside the TV, I get too exhausted to do any of it. You?"

"Ha, ha…sure…"

"So, reading music articles then."

"How'd you know?!"

"I just made an educated guess, that's all."

"Scary, dude…you know me way too well."

"Ha, ha. It's perfectly all right to read what you like. We _do_ have a test next week, though."

"Aw man, seriously? I'm _so_ not prepared. Like. At all."

"Do you want to study together again?"

"I'd feel bad. You know teaching me'll only bring your grades down."

"No it won't. Seriously, it's no trouble. Teaching you helps me remember the material."

"Well, now I just feel peachy about it."

"I didn't mean it like that, Hanamura."

"…Yeah. I know. Sorry. That would be nice."

"…?"

"Right, no apologizing. Thanks, man."

/ /

"Mom," Yosuke's voice is hesitant. For all its' changing in the last few years, he still sounds boyish and a little shy. Sometimes his mother can't read him at all, but on things like this, she's got twenty-twenty vision. He's nervous. "Would you, uh, care if I had company over?"

Really, she's been expecting it. She's surprised this request hasn't come a lot sooner. Yosuke never shuts up about his new best friend. He's always dashing out to meet Narukami and his group of friends, studying at Narukami's house, eating lunch with Narukami – if she's completely honest, it's kind of annoying that she hasn't met the kid.

"You're bringing him over here?" She asks again, just to make sure she heard correctly the first time.

His look gets affronted. "I mean, if you don't want me to…"

"No, no, it's fine—great, actually," Mrs. Hanamura reassures her son, mind racing. _So, I finally get to meet the famous Narukami_. "Should I go to the store and get snacks?"

"It's fine. I think Narukami ate already." He's fiddling with his phone, sending the other boy a message to double-check. Looking very much like the crying little boy he had been once, Yosuke looks down at her with a wobbly lip. "Mom, it's really…fine?"

What, had he been expecting her to say no? She smiles with a huff. "Of course it's fine, silly boy."

He breathes out with very obvious relief and waits in the living room impatiently. She can tell he doesn't know what to say to her, and she doesn't push him to say anything either. Luckily, Narukami Yu arrives pretty quickly, and Yosuke lights up at his appearance. Yosuke's expressions are as wide open as they were to her as a child, and she almost laughs at how easily flustered her son is.

As she bows and introduces herself, she wants to squeeze Narukami in her arms and thank him endlessly for whatever the hell he's done to make Yosuke smile like that.

/ /

"I can't believe I almost forgot about the release date for this," Yosuke whines, clutching the CD to his face.

"Well," the silver-haired town sweetheart smiles at him warmly. "Aren't you glad we came to Okina today?"

"You don't _know_ how glad I am," the brown-haired youth nearly moans, happy to have his new purchase in his hands. "I could always get a digital copy, but it's just not the same."

"That's good." Yu feels his infectious warmth and sidles over to him, brushing shoulders. "So, what's this band like again?"

Yosuke slings his arm over his friends shoulder and brightens up, cheeks glowing with excitement. "They first started as a garage band five years ago – can you believe it? A garage band in Tokyo! Of course, their musical talents were found, because they're fantastic, and the rest, as they say, was history. They're kinda traditional rock, with a little taste of Latin flare, because the lyricist apparently spent time in Spain and the Caribbean as a kid."

The other teen leans into his friend's touch, reciprocating with a small smile. "That sounds nice. If only you could remember history or geography in class so well, Yosuke."

He doesn't freeze at the name, or his proximity. Hanamura's jaw drops as he puts on a pained expression and wilts at the barb. "You wound me, partner."

Yu pushes a stray hair out of Yosuke's face only because he's so close and he absently things he wants to see his eyes. Yosuke does squirm a little at the attention, wrinkling his nose, but he's apparently grown used to his friend's non-existent concept of personal space. "It was only a joke. I know your grades in both of those subjects have gotten better."

"You don't have to butter me up." Yosuke's cheeks burn, and this time, he does pull away, just a bit, but Yu can tell it's more out of habit than being uncomfortable.

/ /

Yosuke is hastily scribbling something in a school notebook when she comes downstairs, and he promptly shoves everything in a bag at the patter of her footsteps. Teddie comes down just after her – a strange boy, that one, but impossible to hate. According to her husband, he'd boosted sales fifteen percent that month. He stammers a greeting to both of them, and although she opts not to tease him for studying for once, the blonde has no such reservations.

"Studying to keep up with sensei? Might as well give up now, Yosuke!"

"I'll kill you, dumb bear!" In moments like that, Mrs. Hanamura chuckles to herself and is endlessly grateful for Teddie's presence. He's like the younger brother Yosuke never had, and he's good for him.

After they eat dinner, Yosuke dismisses Teddie back to their room and lingers around the fridge. When he doesn't say anything, his mother turns and glances at him.

"I won't make you anything this late," she says with a lilt in her voice and Yosuke grumbles back.

"I didn't want you to." After another moment of fidgeting, Yosuke turns to her and asks his first serious question besides asking if Teddie could come and live with them since he was ten, maybe. "Hey, Mom?"

"Yes, Yosuke?" She mutes her TV show, sensing the gravity of his nervousness.

"I'm sorry for sometimes being an ass." She lets his language go for the time. "And thanks. For being there. I know I complain a lot, but, well. You know." _I love you_. Mrs. Hanamura reads between the lines and warms at the sentiment.

"I forgive you, of course. I love you, Yosuke."

Turning red and turning around so that he can act like it never happened, Yosuke mutters to himself. "So embarrassing…" After a beat, he coughs and speaks again, keeping his back turned. "Well, do you…do you still think it's okay for…boys to be different?"

The wheels turn in her head, and it takes her ages to reply. "You mean what I said to you all those years ago? I didn't think you remembered that."

He flushes again, gesturing wildly with his hands. "Uh, _no_! I'm asking now because of a friend of mine. Who's…" His mind races for a word and fails. "He's _really _different."

It smells like an excuse, but she's willing to play along for now. "Okay. Different how?"

Yosuke stammers. "Different _different_! You know what I mean!"

"Well," she only guesses because of his reaction, and fixes him with a stare, "What do _you_ think?"

Yosuke thinks about it for a long time instead of just shutting her down. "I don't know..." When she raises an eyebrow, his shoulders sag. "Not yet."

/ /

_Hanamura Yosuke calling…_

"Hello?"

"I'm sorry."

"…No greeting first?"

"I needed to get it off my chest before I could talk myself out of it."

"…Okay. So, what are you apologizing for?"

"Man, you must be really pissed."

"I'm not."

"You so are. I can tell."

"Okay. Maybe a little. So?"

"For…for what I said. About. You know. Him."

"Him who?"

"You're gonna make me say it all, aren't you…"

"Yes."

"Kanji, okay. I was just…I was a jerk. I apologized to him already, didn't I?"

"Only because the situation was different. I'm not sure whether you meant it or not."

"…I didn't know you felt this strongly about it, dude."

"I care that my best friend would say those kinds of things about another friend of mine."

"I didn't mean for it to be hurtful…Kanji said we were okay now, so…"

"You thought it was water under the bridge."

"I just…didn't know what else to say, okay? You know me. Open mouth, insert foot."

"That doesn't make it okay, Yosuke."

"I'm sorry."

"For?"

"…For making fun of Kanji. I'm not…I'm just not…"

"Comfortable?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"…I don't know."

"…"

"It's hard, partner. Being insecure, and unconfident, and lame. I read too much into things, I make situations awkward because of my own problems, and I know it. I just need…time."

"Time to be confident in yourself?"

"…Yeah."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"As long as you understand that."

/ /

One school year passes, Yosuke gets depressed, but he keeps on talking and talking and _talking_ about Narukami. Apparently they still talk at least three times a week on the phone, and daily through text and instant messaging. Miraculously, not only does Yosuke graduate, he did so with flying colors, spending his senior year in cram school and studying until he falls asleep. Teddie mocks him relentlessly at first, but once he sees Yosuke's determination, he wants to go to school too.

Really, she ought to give Narukami a medal.

The next thing she knows, he's talking about moving out, getting closer to the city for college. She supposes she shouldn't be surprised, because she's not sure her son's ever truly loved Inaba, but in the last couple years, she knows he'd made quite the group of friends here.

Later, he tells her that he _does_ love Inaba, but Yu's parents will only let him move so far away from college, and although the two of them aren't going to the same school, they want to live together.

She knows then, regardless of whether Yosuke _knows_ and won't tell her, or whether he hasn't figured it out at all. The weekend he moves, she speaks to her husband after the fact, when he's too tired to argue or be too terribly upset.

"Yosuke loves his best friend." She feigns disinterest, but her keeps her eyes sharp on her aging husband.

Unsurprisingly, he only sighs and lowers his eyes. She can tell that he knows exactly what she means. "I know."

/ /

On Sundays, neither of them work. They study and chat and catch up with old friends, but most importantly, they eat dinner together. After dinner, they sit on the couch, more closely than they would with anyone else. It is on a Sunday evening, lazy and tired, that Yu leans over and presses a soft kiss on Yosuke's cheek, running his fingers through his freshly cut hair.

Yosuke hesitantly inches his fingers towards the other man's hand, nervous and flustered, eyes downcast. "I don't deserve you."

"You _do_, Yosuke," Yu assures him.

"I said all those terrible things when I was younger, because I was stupid. But I'm…" He tries to open his mouth and fails, and kisses him chastely on the lips. "I just…I…"

Yu kisses him again, more deeply this time. "You don't have to say it right now. Whenever you're ready is fine."

They entangle each other in a kiss with tongue, moving hands through hair and growing red and breathless. "You…are way too patient," Yosuke says when they break away. "And forgiving, and handsome, and perfect."

"I'm glad you think so," Yu says with a smile, and he means it.

/ /

_Yosuke calling…_

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"I, uh…"

"…Yes?"

"Sorry, I was…just thinking. Would you be mad if I told you something?"

"Depends on the something. If you need money or school's not going well—"

"No, no, it's nothing like that!"

"Okay then, what is it?"

"I'm, uh…it took me a long time to…to be able to say it, but I'm different."

"Different how?"

"…I can tell when you're messing with me, Mom."

"Well?"

"Different from other boys."

"What do you mean?"

"Damn it, Mom, you're not supposed to make this hard."

"I'm sorry. I know what you're trying to say, Yosuke."

"…Thanks."

"I'll tell your father. Will we meet Yu's family formally?"

"Hey, I didn't say—"

"Yosuke."

"…Was it that obvious?"

"I'm your mother."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Does Dad know?"

"Probably."

"And you guys…don't care?"

"I mean, of course it's a little uncomfortable, but it's nothing we can't handle. We've known you might have been different for a long time."

"That's not a definite yes or no."

"It's okay with us, Yosuke. We think Narukami-kun is a nice young man."

"…You don't think he's too good for me?"

"Sometimes."

"I knew it."

"But you don't give yourself enough credit. We're proud of you, Yosuke, and that boy loves you. It's plain as day."

"…You mean that?"

"Of course."

"I…you don't know what that means to me. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

/ /

Yu runs his hands through Yosuke's hair as the two of them sit on the couch in the evening. "What did she say?"

Yosuke shrugs, sighing against him and trying to mask how genuinely happy he is. "Mom stuff. She wants to meet your family."

He hums, the sound traveling through his chest and against Yosuke's head, where the brunette leans against him. "Fun."

Yosuke threads their hands together and smiles a very small, sincere grin. "I know."

/ /

At night, when Yu is on the cusp of sleep, he whispers. "You are the weirdest person I know," Yu chuckles back, and he continues lightly, "and I love you."

Yu hugs him back and smiles against his throat. "I know."


End file.
